(Newser)
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Stories of agencies working on the same projects and not bothering to coordinate dog every presidential administration, but Barack Obama has an ambitious plan to avoid all that: He’s concentrating power over domestic issues in the hands of White House advisers. “It really is a way of him maximizing the opportunity to control all aspects of these efforts,” a former Clinton staffer tells the Washington Post.
Among Obama’s high-level West Wing aides are Carol Browner, environmental coordinator; Adolfo Carrion, who'll spearhead the urban agenda; and Tom Daschle—also a Cabinet secretary—running the health-care effort. But, warn some critics, Obama is inviting confusion. Says a former Nixon aide, “It's adding a layer of bureaucracy rather than really eliminating one. Everyone will be fighting with everybody.”
